Maximum Ride 20
by AlayaSinniar
Summary: What happens when Max Ride gets a taste of her own upgrade? Find out here! Read and Review please!
1. Chapter 1 Cages

I woke up sore

I woke up sore. This wasn't the first time I had. This time, it was my eyes and arms. My wings were fine, as were my legs. The whitecoats had apparently done something overnight.

I heard coughing, and turned to look. It was Sam, the youngest. He was 6, while I was 11 and Tony was 12.

"My arms hurt!" Sam complained, and I scooted over next to him to give him a hug. "Mine do too, don't worry." Looking around, I asked, "Where's Tony?"

Sam looked around too. "I don't know. He was here last night. Let me see." Sam closed his eyes, then opened them. They were a weird green-ish yellow, and I saw he was looking through walls. Yeah, Sam can do that. His wings are also the same tawny-golden. Mine were black, all black, like a raven.

"Alaya." he said closing his eyes again, making them return to their normal color. "Last night the scientists drugged us and took him away. That's why our muscles are sore." I nodded. I knew there was something weird about that food. It had tasted odd.

"So where is he?" I asked Sam. This time, Sam cocked his head, seeming to think. Yeah, Sam can also hear thoughts. He can't make people do things though, like another experiment I know. Her name is Angel, I think.

You see, we're upgrades from Max and her flock. We were more than just 2 avian. We were a full 5. Though we had wings, ours was larger than Max's, and our bones were more like bird's. We were also short for our age, whereas Max's flock is tall for their age. Our skin was softer, and had a feathery feel, so we were waterproof, like ducks. Also, the scientists gave us some cells from the original flock to make us more powerful. I got cells from Fang and Max, Sam got some from Nudge and Angel, and Tony got cells from Iggy and the Gasman. Don't ask me how I know all this. (By the way, in case you are asking, Sam read every single thought when he was younger. He couldn't control it.)

So, the so-far list of our powers are...

-Sam: Read minds, see through walls, computer hacking stuff, feel other's emotions, breathe underwater, talk to animals.

-Me: Not much. Fly higher and faster, go camo (blend in), mimic animals and I'm pretty much never scared or panicking. I'm always calm, cool and in control.

-Tony: Make bad smells, extremely good night-vision, can memorize any surorunding in 5 seconds flat, and can see colors and shapes without opening his eyes.

Also, all of us can fly, super vision and hearing, and we're all extremely good at hiding.

Right now, we were stuck in cages, wondering where the heck Tony was.

I hate cages.

A few minutes later, Sam was tossed back into his dogcrate. Literally. I heard him grunt in pain, and saw the bruises on him. The whitecoats hadn't bothered to put his shirt back on.

Since Sam and I shared a dogcrate, cause we were the smallest, I put my hands on the bars of my cage and looked at Sam. "You ok?" I asked worridley. Something else I didn't mention before was that we all have increased intelligence. Pretty high IQ's. That's why Sam is 6 and can talk like an intelligent high schooler.

Tony looked over at me and nodded, not wanting to look hurt in front of Sam. Since Tony was Sam's older brother, Tony always tried to be tough for him. I, however, could see right through the act. Just cuz I knew him so well.

I sat back on my legs, still concerned. "Tony, did they do anything?" Before Tony could answer, Sam broke in. "They changed his wings. His wings are stronger and silenter now."

Well, that pretty much did it for me. I mean, yeah I was jealous of his stornger wings, but no, I wasn't jealous of how he looked right now. So, I started moving my dog crate. We had figured this out early on, that if you move to one side, then quickly back to the other, you can rock the dog crate off the counter and escape.

So, Sam and i started to move the dog crate inch by inch off the counter. Tony, next to us, did the same. His crate fell and landed the way it was supposed to, on its' side. He quickly unlatched the bottom latch and crawled out, still stiff and sore. Ours fell after that, almost on top of Tony.

You would think that the whitecoats would hear all this noise of falling crates and come running in. But no, we were put in a soundproof room so we couldn't hear what they were doing out there. Apparently, it was soundproof both ways.

After we had climbed out of the crates and stretched our stiff muscles, we moved for the door. The whitecoats suspected we wouldn't get out of our crates, even though we had before, so we got out easily. It was nighttime, and the hallways were dark and silent. Perfect for us. We ran around like little stowaways, hiding in the darkest shadows and freezing at any sound. I had memorized the route before. One more turn and we were outta he--

On our little freedom spree we had almost run into a large group of whitecoats. They grinned evilly. We launched into attack mode but before we could lay hands on any of them, I heard a bang and Sam cry out in pain. Tony and I whirled toward the sound. Sam was on the ground, out cold. The whitecoat next to him had a dart gun. Growling furiously, I launched myself at the whitecoat, then heard two bangs. I saw Tony fall to the ground, then a whole bunch of blackness.


	2. Chapter 2 New House

Ok, so maybe it was bigger than a house

Ok, so maybe it was bigger than a house. A farm. Whatever.

When we woke up, we were in a room, in a house. I looked out the window and saw a very picteresque landscape. Looking around the room we were in, I realised that Sam was still sleeping. I looked at Tony questioningly, and he shrugged. "Probably just a stronger drug to keep his mind dead for a while." I shook my head and poked sam in the side. he awoke instantly, wings springing out and almost whacking me in the head.

I laughed, and Tony smiled. Sam rubbed where I had poked him and said, " S'not funny."

Still smiling, I checked out the room we were in. It was a living room, with a couch, TV, chair, small tables, whatever. No doors, so the three of us walked out into the kitchen. We were surprised to see someone there at the counter making something. Instinctively, Tony stepped in front of me and Sam, and Sam slid behind me, still rubbing his arm.

The woman turned around and looked surprised. "Oh, I didn't know you'd be up so early. I thought the drug they out you on would take a while longer." I slid out from behind Tony and glared at the woman. "You mean you were a part of this?" The woman nodded. "I helped you escape. Otherwise, you'd be waking up back in the lab."

I must have looked confused, because the woman went on. "I had the FBI go and take you away while the scientists were busy. You came here as a rehabilitation, to recover from your traumatic life spent at the School."

I figured the whitecoats were the scientists she was talking about, so I asked, "Why do you want to help us?"

The woman was taken aback by the question. "I...I had some kids earlier, and they ran away, so now I try to help any kids I can find. You were at the rop of my list." I cocked my head, and Tony asked, "What's your name?"

The woman smiled. "My name is Ann."

Ann wasn't that bad. She was really nice, actually. Pretty motherly. And although she didn't seem like it, she must have been a mother before. She even said so.

But those kids ran away. Why?

That aside, we were enjoying ourselves. There was a huge pond int he back, and sam had fun there. Tony spent a lot of time flying around, looking at the scenery, and I just layed around eating. Ann must have known somehow that birdkids eat TONS of food.

One day I was sitting on the roof, watching Sam playing in the pond below and talking to the small fish and Tony flying around the house, when 6 birds flew overhead. They seemed really powerful, large wings, and pretty. They were kind of oddly shaped though, and with my raptor vision, i could pick out some shapes that were definately not birds. They paused above the house, circling, before moving on.

"Tony!" I called. He landed baside me, shaking out his wings. Sam had splashed him. "What?" he asked, shaking water all over me. I glared at him, then asked, "Did you see those birds above us?" he shook his head.

I sighed. "Oh well, Maybe they'll come back so we can fly with them." Tony nodded, then we heard a maniacal scream come from the pond. Tony and I looked at each other, then laughed.

Sam was such an idiot.

The next day, I was sitting on the roof again, while Sam and Tony were inside playing poker with Ann. I bet Sam was winning.

Then, just as the day before, the 6 birds flew overhead. This time, I stood up and flew up to them. Before I had taken 4 flaps, they spread out, making a huge circle around me as I flew up. Suddenly a thought pushed against my head. _Go back home. We don't want you here. Sam wants you home._ I smiled ot myself and turned around. I knew who they were now. I'll just let them think they had me covered.

About 10 feet from the roof, I went camo and turned completely invisible. Silently, I flew back up to them. None of them noticed me and continued flying on. I zoomed ahead and flew above them.

Yup, they weren't birds alright. They were kids with wings. I had a feeling that this was the flock I had been created from. Suddenly, I felt the little one, Angel, pushing against my mind again. _Go away. Why won't you leave? _I laughed and thought back, _I know who you are. Go ahead, read my mind. _This time, the voice didn't reply. I could see her below me looking around in confusion.

"Max!" she said. The girl at the head of the flock turned around and hovered in the air. "Yeah?" she replied.

"There's someone following us. I told them to go away when they flew at us, but now they came back and I can't see them!"

Max looked around her, as did the dark boy beside her. I guessed that had to be Fang, just because his wings looked so much like mine. The paler boy, obviously sightless, sighed. "Why don't we just move on?" he suggested. Max shook her head. "No Iggy. We can't just fly around having someone follow us. They might have a tracker and someone'll come get us."

I smiled. That's exactly what I would have said. Max was pretty smart.

Max looked at Angel. "Ask them what they want from us, and to please show themselves."

"Why would I show myself?" I said aloud. Surprised, all six faces turned to look up at me. Even iggy, the blind kid. It was kinda creepy. I saw the confusion on their faces as they saw no one.

Max recovered herself the quickest. "And why not?"

"Cause you'll freak. I look like you. And with that clone trouble you had a few months ago, I don't wanna scare all you." It was true. I had Max's face and eyes, Fang's skin tone and hair color and build. It would probably freak them out a little. And now that I looked at all of them, I could see where sam had gotten his wing-color from, (Nudge) and his innocent blue eyes. Tony had obviously gotten Gazzy's blonde hair and Iggy's build.

I saw Max cock her head in that same way I do. "You look like me? us?" I nodded, even though they couldn't see me. "Yeah." Her flock looked at each other, emotions clearly displayed on their face. Normally, if the worry on Angel's face had been on Sam, I would have flown over and comforted him. But, then again, none of them knew me, so it probably wouldn't help at all.

This time, Nudge spoke up. "Why can't we see you? The clone is gone, and we know you're not an exact replica, right? So, just show yourself. I promise I won't hurt you." One by one, the flock agreed with this, even fang giving a slight nod. I could detect a flicker on interest in his eyes.

I sighed. "Fine, but nothing sudden, k?" With that, I let the invisibility disappear and showed them my face.


	3. Chapter 3 Showdown

For a while it was nothing but them staring at me, flying above them with the sun behind me

For a while it was nothing but them staring at me, flying above them with the sun behind me. Fang looked mostly at my wings and face, while everyone else took one look at my face and their mouth dropped open. Max stopped looking. Maybe it bugged her how much I looked like her.

"How old are you?" Iggy asked. I shrugged. "I think i'm 11. Not really sure. I feel older though." I could still feel Angel trying to push into my mind, and I kept pushing her back out. I had some experience with Sam, the nosy 6 year-old.

"Why don't we, um, go to the forest? Away from the house?" Max asked quietly. I was guessing she remembered the clone. I shuddered myself, then answered, "Sure. But do you mind if I bring the others?"

This brought more silence, followed by Fang asking, "There's more of you?" I nodded. "Yeah, Tony and Sam. Can they come?" Max looked at her flock then said, "Uh, sure. I guess so."

After Tony and sam had followed me and the flock to the forest, we all sat in a big circle in the trees. The first part of the meeting was just basically get to know each other while Max, fang and I talked.

"So, what are you guys? Copies of us?" Max asked me. I shook my head. "No, we're upgrades." Fang smirked, "So, like, you're better than us?" I could still feel him eyeing me, more than any of the others had. Apparently, max had noticed this too. "But you can't be stronger, you're so much shorter than Nudge, even though you're the same age! Gazzy's as tall as you!" I nodded. "Yeah, we're short for our age, but we can glide more, so we don't have to flap as muh. Our weight-to-wingspan ratio is lower than yours."

Max seemed mad at this, so she swung her fist at me. I ducked before it even came within a foot. Fang's eyes widened slightly, and Max looked even madder. "But you can't be better!" I laughed. "And why not?" Max started talking, then Fang touched her arm. "I think maybe we should just have a showdown, just to let Max see that upgrades are better." I shrugged. Why not? let the sorry excuse for a leader fight me and lose.

That's why 5 minutes later, the two flocks surrounded me and Max. It was weird, like looking in one of the mirrors at the carnivals that make you taller. I almost laughed.

Max made the first move by swinging a punch at me. I ducked, but she was ready for it. She lifted her foot that woul;d have caught me in the jaw if I hadn't been ready, too. Before the foot connected with me I grabbed it and used the momentum to swing her and let go. She flew a couple feet then hit the ground hard. Glaring at me and sucking in breath, she got up. "You think you're so tough." she growled, then launched herself at me. I ducked again and swung hard in an uppercut that connected with her chin. Her head flew up so hard she hit the ground again. Dazed, she lay on the ground for a bit. "max, I don't want to keep fighting. Just realise that we're upgrades and we're better. I'm sorry." She sat up slowly and looked at me. "That's what the clone said. That she was better. And I beat her. But with you, it's harder, because..." she trailed off. I noticed her gaze flicked to fang, then back at me. I knew what she was thinking. She liked fang, and saw him in me. "Maybe upgrades are better Max, but I'm not going to hurt you or your flock. Ever." I helped her up, and she accepted my last statement. Nodding, I knew we had made a pact.


	4. Chapter 4 What the

After the showdown, we all just stayed in the woods

After the showdown, we all just stayed in the woods. I liked talking to Max and Fang, even though they were waaaaaay taller than me. Max was at least a foot, and Fang a foot and 4 inches. Maybe 5. But still, they really understood a lot of the stuff I said. Fang told me later that he was amazed at how well I could talk, being just 11 years old.

I watched Sam and Angel and Gazzy all over each other, pretending to fight like Max and I had. Sam was going easy, but he was still beating both of them. It made me wonder then what the whitecoats had been planning to do with us.

Apparently, Max was thinking the same thing. "So, what were you guys made for?" I shrugged. "We aren't really sure. But Tony said that when he was younger--I dont't remember this--they talked to us a lot about you. And someone named Ari?" I looked over at Max questioningly, and she shuddered. Taking a deep breath, and looking away at Fang, who was tlaking to Izzy and Tony, said, "He was my half-brother. One of those erasers." My eyes widened. We had been there when they killed all the erasers. We were there when the scientists had killed all the needless experiments, and we were they, afraid they were going to kill us.

"Max..." I said, thinking of a quesrion, but it was really personal. I mean, it might be kinda hard for her to answer. Like, private, you know? So what? I'll ask anyway. "Yeah?" she replied, still watching the other part of our flocks. I took a deep breath, preparing for a blow-up. "Were you guys test tube babies?"

She was silent for a moment. "Yeah." she finally said, voice almost a whisper. "Why, were you?" I took another breath and shook my head. "No. The scientists grabbed Tony off the streets, and me and Sam out of an orphanage. Tony was 5 when he was taken. I was 4 and Sam was only a couple months. They took us because there was no record of our birth--anywhere." Max looked at me, eyes wide and unbeliving. "You mean they--" I nodded.

She shook her head. "But--" I shrugged.

"How?" she finally asked. "I dunno." I said, shrugging again. "Tony said all he remembers is a lot of pain. I don't rememebr anything but a really bright light. Sam doesn't remember anything. They--"

A huge yell of pain echoed across the clearing. Max and I both jumped up, wings spread, fists clenched. It was a cool effect really, and I would have laughe dif the moment wasn't so tense.

Tony was lying on the ground in pain, clutching his head. His wings were flapping frantically, making Fang and Izzy jump backward in surprise and fear of being hit. "Tony!" I yelled, running forward. What happened?

"What happened?" Max asked. Funny. It was like we could read each others minds. Fang shook his head. "I dont' know!" Izzy was trying to guess what was happening. I could see Sam and Angel desperately discussing what to do. "Tony!" I yelled, then knelt beside him, holding down his wings. "Someone else grab the other wing!" It took Fang and Izzy's foot. Wow. Sad.

Then, Angel and sam screamed simuealtaneously. I looked at Sam. What was happening?!

Then, a huge pain started to creep across my head. I squinted ym eyes shut. Now, Tony had stopped flapping, and I felt his wings go limp. He was breathing hard,s till clutching his head. Sam was screaming, and now so was Angel. "His head! Something's happening to him!" Angel was screaming, backing up so fast she sat down. Fang left Tony, and went and tackled Sam to stop him from flying into trees. I didn't see any of this, because my eyes were shut. but I could hear it. Then, as Sam quieted, Tony got up. Right when Tony sat up, screaming pain shot through my whole body. I felt myself scream, then shoot straight into the air. Branches whacked me, leaves whipped me, but I kept flying. When I was in the air, my wings kept flying, but I had my hands clamped tight over my ears, trying to get the screeching out of my head. It was like I was in a car crash, but amplified 50 times.

My wings slowly started to slow down, though the pain was still going. I opened my eyes a crach to see where I was, and realised i was more than 50,000 feet in the air. it was so cold, I could see my breath and frost started to form on my wings. Then, they stopped flapping, and I began dropping like a stone.

For a couple seconds, I was only aware of the screaming train wreck in my head and the wind whistling past me. Then, I felt a pair of arms around me. It had to be Tony. He would follow me here to help me. But that's as far as the thought went, because then I felt a huge wave of calm, then I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I couldn't figure out where I was. It was kinda dark, and the floor was hard. I sat up, but laid back down, holding my head. Too fast. Shouldn't get up that fast after a major headache. I opened my eyes wider, letting them catch any light coming into the cave. There wasn't much, it was sunset. With a jolt, I realised we'd been gone all day, and Ann had to be worried about us. I sat up again, slower this time, and heard a rustle. The figure standing at the front of the cave turned around. They were standing against the light, so I couldn't see who they were. It was obviously Tony though.

I smiled weakly, trying to find something to say, when he spoke.

"You're up."

That wasn't Tony's voice. It was Fang's. My mouth dropped open, confused, and fang said, "You grew. Tony and Sam did too, right after you shot up. Max stayed with Nudge, calming Sam and Angel down, and Gazzy and Iggy were tackling Tony the last time I saw them. I went after you." I shook my head, trying to clear away the fuzziness. "But, why?" was all I could ask.

Fang sighed and wlked over to me, sitting by me. He put his cool hand to my forhead, and it immediatly felt better, though he shocked me. He pulled his hand back too, and I wondered if he felt the jolt. He shook his head and put his hand back on my forhead. There was another jolt, but it was smaller. "Alaya, you have a fever. You're burning up." Oh. So that was why my head still hurt.

He layed my head back down against the floor, then stood up. "Ma--Alaya." he said. Ha. He had almost called me Max. "Alaya, Max told me you're living with Ann. You need to leave. You and Tony and Sam."

I was starting to get tired, and my brain was already on shut-down mode, so i couldn't tell what I was saying until I said it. "Mmkay...just tke us somewhere safe."

"I will." I turned over to get confortable. "Make sure you come too. I want you to be there."

I heard him sigh, then say, "Ok..." With that, I smiled, and went to sleep.

Soemthing was wrong. I could feel it. I sat staright up, looking around me. It was dark, and I counted. Ok, there was three of us.

Wait. There was four. No, five. Wait, seven.

Seven? What happened? Then it hit me. Fang had taken me somewhere with the flock. But where were Tony and Sam? Fang had taken them too, right?

It was then I noticed two figures were standing up, away from the group, murmuring quietly. From the light of the fire, I could see it was Fang and Max. Max seemed pretty mad. It was amazing how she was keeping her voice low. I was guessing they were talking about us. We were in an open area, so I turned invisible and flew over. I landed a little bit away and crept closer to listen.

"We can't keep them with us. Now they're our size, and it'll be harder to hide us. Besides, since they've been livign with Ann, who knows what they'll do?" Fang sighed, and siad, "But we can't leave them with her. Sam's only 6, for pete's sake. And she--they, deserve a better life." Max frowned. "Her? Does she deserve it more than our flock? If we take them with us, we jeopardize our flock's safety. Does she really deserve it?" She ended witha growl. Fang looked at the ground. "Max, you know that's not--"

"Then what are you saying?" She said, facing him squarely. "Are you saying that they matter more than us? That she matters more than me?"

They stood in silence for a while, and me legs were getting cramped for crouching down. I moved a little, and there was a rustle. They instantly stiffened, and looked around. Fang looked directly at me, and it seemed like he could see me, though I was invisible. "For all we know," max continued, "They could be spies. Especially Alaya." She turned and wlaked back to the flock, laying down beside Nudge and Angel, back turned pointedly away from Fang.

Fang turned and whispered in my direction, "Alaya. Come out now." I sighed, and turned uninvisible. I walked towards him, then said, "Wanna go for a fly?" He nodded, and we took off.

We flew in silence for a while, then he said, "You know she's jealous." I nodded,a nd he said, "And you know we'll most likely have to leave you guys behind." Again, i nodded and sighed. "I know Fang." He flew closer to me so our wings brushed tips, and I realised I really did grow. I was a little taller than Nudge now. But he gave me a small smile, and that was enough. But why did it have to end?

We landed on a little alcove, probably a mile or two away from our "camp". We sat on the cliff, wings touching, hands brushing, and that was how Tony found us.


	5. Chapter 5 Split up

It was awkward

It was awkward. One moment, Fang's hand was on top of mine, the next, Tony was on top of him, 2 feet away.

Tony had divebombed out of the sky, seeing us together, and rammed straight into Fang. They roleld around, while I stared unblelieving at them fighting. What was Tony's problem?

Finally they roleld to a stop, both of them breathing hard, Fang with a busted lip and Tony on the bottom. They were both glaring at each other, and Tony said, "Why?"

This seemed to be the question of the century, because it took fang so long to answer. When he did, I was shocked. He said, "because i like her."

Tony shoved Fang off of him and stood up, staring at me, unimaginable pain in his eyes. "How?" he asked. It was my turn to figure out an answer now. I shook my head. "I...don't...Tony, I..." I couldn't figure out what to say. I didn't know why I did it. It was an impulse thing, which I am prone to do. It must ahev beent he max in me, but I couldn't blame it on that.

Just then, while Fang was tenderly touching his busted lip and Tony was eyeing him like he wanted to punch him again, Max flew in.

I don't need to tell you what happened next, just that I ended up with a few bruises and a busted lip, a broken heart, Tony had a black eye and a sprained wrist, fang got his lip busted agin, and another bruise on his forhead, and Max looked exactly like me.

We all flew away in silence, broken hearts on everyones minds.

Tony and Sam were gone.

So was Nudge and Gazzy and Angel. What did Tony think, that he could run a flock of 5? Leaving Max to deal with me, fang, and Iggy?

We sat in stony silence, around the fire. We ahd all gotten up early when Max sounded the alarm. We flew around for an hour, then regrouped. Even with Max's and my speed, they were long gone.

"They must have left right after the fight." Fang said quietly. Iggy looked at him. I still found that odd, having a blind kid look right at you. Still, he said, "Ok, I still don't get what the fight was about. You and Alaya were talking, then Tony flew over, tackled you for no reason, then Max came and you all had a really nasty argument?" Fang and I looked at each other, and I looked at his busted lip and said, "yeah. Pretty much." Max completely ignored Fang, which he seemed ot be fine with.

Iggy sighed. "So, why did Nudge, gazzy and Angel leave with Tony and Sam? And why didn't they take Alaya?"

"well, for one, Tony's really mad at me. And Sam will follow Tony anywhere, since he calls him the leader." I said. "And I've noticed that Sam and Angel have become really close friends, so he would have wnated her to come." Max looked at the sky. "And Gazzy wants to protect Angel, and Nudge is best friends with Angel, and is currently hitting on Tony." Then she glanced at me and said, "oops."

Fang snickered, and I could feel my face getting red. I shrugged. "Um, don't see why she would be, but ok..." Iggy laughed. "I bet Nudge is trying to be second-in-command, being the second oldest. And so she can get close to him." Max laughed. "Yeah, and I've never seen her have any interest in guys! It's been so funny watching he rtlak to him..." They all started laughing, while I sat there trying to hide my blush.

The jokes continued until the sun rose, then we all began flying. Max still hadn't told the flock where they were going, and I could only guess where Tony was taking his flock. I kept glancing at Max, who made a point of ignoring Fang, and at Fang, who kept glancing at me. I was thinking about last night, and how his hand had felt touching mine...

"Alaya!"

I stopped, hearing the yell, and dodged quickly right as the missle flew just inches form me. Fang grabbed me and poured on the speed, while max grabbed Iggy's hand and flew faster than us. "What was that?" I asked Fang as we flew faster and faster, missles just barely missing us.

"Whitecoats?" he guessed, breathless. I didn't ask any more questions, because he was concentrating on flying.

A while later, after the missles stopped, Max directed us to a forest, where we landed among the trees. Fang set me down on the branch besdie him, and I saw max look at him, jealousy in her eyes. I was about to wonder why, when I remembered why she and I had fought last night. Cause she loved Fang too.

"Well, let's make camp." Iggy said, clearing away brush for a fire pit. "I'll get firewood with Alaya." Fang volunteered, and dragged me down to the ground, where we walked in silence for a while. Once we were out of earshot and view, he stopped me. I looke dat him, and then, he kissed me.

A long kiss.

And I liked it a lot.

Max ignored Fang and I and we ignored her, except when impossible. Poor Iggy, he was stuck in the middle of this. I felt bad. Once my flock was back together, we'd go our seperate ways, and I'd miss Fang. But at least all the fights would stop.

After we had flown for 6 hours, Iggy said, "I'm hungry max. remember, just because the little kids aren't here complaining doesn't mean we don't have to stop and eat." Max sighed. "Fine. Let's dumpster dive." This was a new maneauver for me. They hadn't taken me dumpster diving before. Fang seemed to sense this and grabbed my hand. "I'll show you how." he offered, then begana steep dive. He landed in front of the store, and walked in, hands in pockets. Iggy followed, which left me and Max. Great.

"max?" I said. She looked at me sideways, glaring. "What do you want, Alaya?" I sighed. "Max, we can't just stop being friends. You know we can't. We're too much alike. Besides, we're like sisters. I have your cells in me." Max laughed. "Then that means you're dating your brother." I made a face,a nd she laughed again. This was how it was supposed to be, us having fun together. Not fighting like we always were.

When Fang and Iggy ran out of the store, with a store clerk chasing them, we all took off at high speed, leaving him scratching his head. I looked at Fang and he handed me a couple high-energy granola bars and power drinks. Iggy did the same for Max. Soon later, we landed on an outcropping to eat. Fang sat by me of course, with Iggy on his other side and Max off by herself. Iggy was pretending he couldn't hear us as Fang talked ot me.

"Let's go stash our trash." he suggested after a while. I got up and grabbed Iggy's trash, and we left. As we dropped out trash behind some bushes, he looked at me, the same way he had the other day. We kissed again, and inwardly, I smiled. I was surprised, but it was an amazing surprise.

Suddenly, I got a weird feeling, and pulled back. Fang looked at me in confusion, and I looked above us.

Max was standing on the hill above us, since we were in a ditch. She had the most hurt look I've ever seen expressed openly on her face, and I almost saw tears in her eyes.

"max--" Fang said, but she cut him off. "No, Fang. Don't explain what you were doing. I know bloody well what you were doing. You were kissing that sorry excuse for a person." She stormed down, skidding down the hill. She walked up to fang, anger blazing in her eyes. "Why Fang?!" She screamed at him. This time, I got in her face. "We don't have to explain ourselves to you, Max!" I yeleld, looking up at her. "Stay out of this, fledgling!" She growled at me. That was it. I had had it. She had put me down this whole time because of my size and just because Fang and I liked each other. I let out a furious growl, and tackled her, while Fang flew away, anger seeping off of him.

I won the fight. The whole time afterwards, while I flew away and Max sat there crying, I heard her cursing upgrades.


	6. Chapter 6 Storm

After that, our flock split again

After that, our flock split again. Me and Fang and Iggy woke up one day and found Max gone. Iggy was confused again, so we explained about how we had had another fight. He shook his head and sighed. "How many more fights are we going to have?" Fang and I had no answer to that.

So we flew on, trying to figure out where Tony and his flock would have gone. It was about an hour after we started flying when it hit me.

"We're going the wrong way!" I yelled and Fang and Iggy above the wind. There was a storm coming. We would have to outfly it. Without quesrion, they turned around, and we flew fast, speeding towards Ann's house and away form the storm.

It turns out we couldn't outfly it, so we took shelter in a cave to wait for it to pass. It ended up being several hours of me and Fang cuddled up together in the cave with Iggy looking out at the sky, probably wondering what a storm would look like. The storm was really bad though. It kept going on for hours upon hours, and I found myself worrying about Tony, Sam, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel. It was like they belonged with me, and I was supposed to protect them.

Sudenly, Iggy said, "The air feels green..." I could tell he was confused, so I looked outside. The sky was green. We watched it for a couple minutes, then a funnel cloud broke down and hit the ground. "It's a tornado!" I yelled above the howling wind. Then with horror, I realised it was right above where out destination was. "Tony!" I yelled and jumped out into the wind, wings springing out. I flapped hard and went with the wind, redirecting my course when needed. Fang and Iggy followed, both confused. When we got closer to the tornado, I could see bits of house flying up into the tornado and being flung at us, and other directions. A board hit Iggy, and he went down for a couple seconds, then came back up with a large cut on his forhead.

It was all Fang could do to keep me from flying into the tornado and trying to save all of them. I cried, I don't know for how long, then the tornado just stopped as suddenly as it had come. We were sure it was over, and we flew toward the house.

Nothing was left. Nothing at all. There were pieces of the house everywhere, and I could see something moving. It gave me hope, and I dropped toward it as fast as I could go.

It was Sam. He was crawling through the rubble, pulling Angel. I could see that he had grown, and was about the same height as Angel now. He pulled her out of the rubble and was trying to wake her up. I landed beside him and Picked up Angel, holding her like a mother would. She was still alive, and I out an arm around Sam as well, both of us crying. Fang and Iggy laned and went through the rubble, pulling out Nudge and Gazzy. The only one they couldn't find was Sam. Nudge came over to cry with us, and Gazzy just hugged me. Fang and Iggy stood off to the side, wondering where Tony was.

I knew where he was.

He was gone with the Storm.


End file.
